Thrashwing
by Hyenes529
Summary: Its been millenia since Griffin escaped from the underworld, and the tunnel from the land of the dead to the surface has been opened. Can Owen, Osiris, Sirri, and Bate close it before an eternity of death erupts? But they need a sacrifice...dot R
1. Owen

Rain fell in heavy drops which softly pattered on the the leaves. The leaves were very small, and great trees sprouted from the ground, their ancient gnarled roots look like they could come alive and throttle any unlucky animal which happens to fall close to them. An active tiger moth fluttered under the leaves for shelter from the rain.

Just then, a bright-furred bat swooped down and shackled the moth then swallowed it whole. The brightwing was a newborn named Owen. Owen always loved ambushing and eviscerating tiger moths at their source. He swooped down and snatched up a beetle, beetles were, by far, his favorite food. He breathed in the scent of the forest, more than anything he loved the smells of the forest, the tanginess of pitch, the rich smell of soil, but in the rain, the scents were dimmed dramatically.

So far, Owen had already eaten some delicious insects, like many beetles, and even about five tiger moths. Owen didn't like the rain too much, unless if it was a thunderstorm. He was very daring, he loved to drink water from the roaring waterfall near his roost. Sometimes it swept him down and made him swim back to shore; and who knows what dangerous animals lived in the perilous rushing water of his stream!

Owen opened his mouth to gulp in some drops of rain. He was a fast flier because of his long and narrow wings, but it didn't make it easy to navigate through the forest in one piece. Owen landed on a dangerously thin branch that leaned over when he roosted on it. Just then, he heard flapping around him. He sprayed out sound and painted pictures in his minds eye. There! A flash of bright fur swirled around him and land on a branch beside Owen. It was just Osiris, a male brightwing newborn who was one of Owen's best friends.

"I seen the way you swooped down on the tiger moth stealthily! It couldn't even use its echo tricks! Epic evisceration!" Osiris exclaimed

"Yeah, it was pretty awesome," Owen murmured, staring into the rainy night.

"Anyways, I heard the dawn chorus, lets go back to 'Haven"

Both of them called Tree Haven just Haven for short. Together they rocketed back to Tree haven, talking about ways they were going to annoy other bats in the tree. They both thought it was funny to annoy many bats until they just bellowed at the two giggling newborns.

"There!"

Owen wasn't sure if he or Osiris said that, but he didn't care- in front of him was Tree Haven.


	2. Arowanas

Owen and Osiris slept soundly (unlike most nights) close to their mothers. The tree echoed with sounds of sleeping bats, snoring peacefully. Suddenly, the tree lightly quaked, but it was loud enough, it woke everyone in the colony. The mothers and newborns all scowled at Owen and Osiris, they all knew about their obnoxious halves, they thought it was some trick.

"It was him." Osiris said, pointing a shaky wing at Owen, who was scowling at Osiris, looking fierce. Owen sprayed sound around his colony, they all had murderous looks in their eyes. Owen almost laughed, but if he did, he would probably have to sleep outside. The last thing you need is to get your colony angry. Just about now, Owen and Osiris weren't exactly popular...

Osiris was born a runt, he was the last brightwing born in the whole colony! But obviously Owen could tell in his eyes he would like to be the dominant newborn, but his dream would never come true. Osiris

always tried to be brave, he actually was kind of like Shade Silverwing, an ancient hero who killed many of the Vampyrum Spectrum, the massive cannibal bats of long ago, by dropping human fire on their temple.

The bats in his colony stopped leering at him and went to sleep. There was always something Owen had wanted to do, and just about everyone in his colony had done it, look at the sun. They were all allowed to do it now because of Shade, who made peace with the owls. Owen looked around at his colony, just to check they were all asleep. It seemed they were, even Osiris, but he didn't want to check, he dove out into the fresh morning air.

It was like nothing Owen had ever seen or felt before, the Sun gleamed high in the sky, a big ball of light. He seen things he never noticed before, the shadows, the veins in leaves, and amazing glow to it all. Small drops of rainwater completely covered leaves from last night. Owen looked around and seen his waterfall, a huge pillar of glistening crystal water. He didn't even need his echo vision, it was so bright.

Owen flew to his water fall and skimmed the surface, the cool rushing water soaking him, but he didn't mind. Owen got bored of that and landed on a branch of a willow tree.

"Having fun?" a voice asked near his head, startling Owen.

"Who's there?" Owen called out.

"Over here, no, over here... LOOK IN THIS DIRECTION!" The voice came again

Just then, a small brightwing came fluttering out of the shadows, Owen recognized him at once.

"Osiris? What are you doing out here?"

"I saw you jump out of the hole,"

Owen was surprised by Osiris's answer, that he challenged him.

"Hey Osiris, I bet I can fly down to the end of this stream faster than you,"

"You're on." Osiris said, he loved races.

They both flew down the stream. This stream was surrounded by mainly willows, no sounds except for the wind and an occasional chirping of a tree frog. Owen wasn't sure he should go down the stream so far, he had never been here before. Just then, before he could tell Osiris that, a massive fish jumped out of the water and snatched him up. Owen could see another fish jump up and catch Osiris.


	3. Bate n' Sirri

Owen awoke to hear voices. He felt something that felt really weird on his right wing. He looked at it and seen a small metal band on his wing. As he cast his echolocation on it, he noticed some overcomplicated squiggled hieroglyphs on the band. Owen looked around and seen Osiris laying on his stomach. Then he noticed something, he was in a small hole in a tree. There were two other bats in the cave with him and Osiris. One was absolutely massive, with wings that would easily stretch four feet from wing tip to wing tip. It had a fox like face with very gentle huge brown eyes and small triangular ears. He didn't look much older than Owen.

The other one was very weird; he had a squashed looking face. His fleshy upper lip arched up in the middle, giving him a fierce killer look. A pair of curved canine like teeth jutted out from both upper and lower jaws. He had a small two pronged nose and cheeks that were very bumpy with moles and whisker encrusted. He had wickedly elongated claws that looked razor start. He was twice as big as Owen and wasn't much older than the big fox-like bat.

"Well look who finally decided to wake up" the one with a whiskery face declared, flaring his wings.

"You were asleep for hours" the fox like one told him gently, he had a soft melodious voice.

"You were unfortunately attacked by an arowana, I'm not too sure why they are all the way up here" the whiskered one said to them.

"Let us introduce ourselves," the fox like bat said "My name is Sirri, his is Bate" he pointed at the whiskery faced one.

"Why are you always the introducer?" Bate grumbled

"You do not seem like the type" Sirri laughed

"Anyways, I am a foxwing, Bate is a fish eater" Sirri continued on.

"We were banished from our colonies" Bate interrupted.

"Why are you-" before Owen could finish, the huge bats flared their wings and seen silver rings fastened around their wings.

"We never thought we would survive, but we have abilities like no other bats, Sirri can see the future with his eyes and I can hear the future" Bate exclaimed proudly

"We are a group now, I came up with the name, _steelwings. _We try to save the world with our powers" Bate continued.

"And I seen something else..." Sirri said, looking at the ground "the dead are building a tunnel that will lead to the surface, Vampyrum will come and capture bats to rip out their hearts and sacrifice them to Cama Zotz, the Vampyrum god. Then Zotz will kill the Sun"

"But wouldn't that kill everything?" Osiris exclaimed, the first words he'd spoken since he woke up.

"Yes, that would be the point, and I predicted that the hole will open in an hour over..." Sirri leaped out of the hole in the tree and pointed to the ground near the tree. "There"

Owen saw that he was in an apple tree in the middle of a field, a small stream gurgled nearby. It was night.

"You can join us if you want, you are banded, after all" Bate suggested

Owen didn't answer; he felt high, as though he did hundreds of somersaults in the clouds. He fell asleep again.

When he awoke, it was dusk, the sky crimsoned colored. Bate was gently nudging him.

"Wake up, my boy, Vampyrum for breakfast." Bate said

Owen went outside and wished he hadn't. There was a huge circle of cracked land that was throwing bits of mud and stone. Animals ran and flew away. Sirri and Osiris roosted side by side on a branch, staring at the opening hole. Just then, there was an explosion then sharp twigs and stones flew out and impaled many animals. Then many huge bats with three foot long wingspans flew out of the hole.

_Vampyrum Spectrum_


	4. Malice

The Vampyrum circled around the hole, leering at the other bats. Owen, Osiris, Sirri and Bate roosted on the same branch, motionless. The many terrified animals were far away now, but not far away enough for the Vampyrum. They chased after the animals, without success. Just then, one Vampyrum caught up to a sparrow, then clubbed it with its wing.

"Fly," Bate hissed "All of us, we can't stop it alone"

Sirri cursed, then realized he was right, he jumped off the branch and flew away. Owen and Osiris followed them without question. The four of them were silhouettes against the bloodstained sky.

Owen looked back, silently praying that his colony was still safe.

"I think we escaped" Bate panted

"Remember, Bate, they are dead, and will return back to the tunnel of death once they stray to far from the fissure." Sirri told him

They flew past an apple tree, Sirri veered towards it and said:

"Lets roost there"

The tree was unlike any tree Owen had ever seen before. It was dotted with strange circular red fruits. Owen landed on one of the fruit, it wobbled, but didn't snap. Sirri landed on a thick branch and so did Bate. Osiris caught up to Owen and landed on the branch that had the fruit with Owen on it.

"That was close" he said

"Yeah" Owen said

Just then, Owen didn't know what happened, but somehow the apple's stem which he was on snapped.

He plunged downwards without being able to move.

Malice could see where the escaped bat was. The Vampyrum tried to fly as low as he could so the bat wouldn't see him. This bat that he was trying to capture was a female albino who had outsmarted him three times when he had first emerged from the tunnel. He knew her name, it was Lithiarch. He was going to catch her, she hid in a cave, so Malice could easily corner the albino.

Malice trimmed his wings and darted towards then caves small opening. Lithiarch hung upside down on the cave ceiling, staring at him calmly with her pinkish eyes. Why was she so calm? Malice thought.

He dove towards her and entered the cave. Malice felt a strange tingling sensation. He looked at his wings in horror

They were dissolving

He just then realized he left the boundaries away from the tunnel. He flew out of the cave, feeling defeated.


	5. Battle

"Owen"

Osiris dove for him.

"No, Osiris, I will get him." Sirri shouted to the runty brightwing.

Sirri dove down, did a sharp curve and caught Owen right before he was splattered on the ground.

"Thank you" Owen gasped

"No problem"

Sirri stared at the huge hole in the distance and the Vampyrum Spectrum flying from it.

"Lets get some rest" Sirri said, then grabbed an apple and started eating it. Owen couldn't keep his eyes open in the dusk, he fell into unconsciousness.

Owen woke up, and seen a huge bat roosting on the branch beside him.

_Vampyrum Spectrum._

Owen fell backwards then laughed, it was only Sirri. He walked over to the foxwing then looked in his face...

… and was snapped at by huge teeth.

He woke up screaming. It was the afternoon, and everyone was staring at him.

"Oh... sorry, just a nightmare" he mumbled, feeling ashamed.

Malice trembled with anger at the albino female staring at him in the out-of-bounds cave. Lithiarch was completely calm about the Vampyrum. The albino crawled closer to the entrance of the cave, taunting him. Malice could not take this anymore, so he flew back to the hell of dawn.

Owen woke up, feeling very worried for his colony, maybe Nocturna had helped them escape. A feeling crossed through Owens whole body, then he looked around, here he was...

...alone.

None was around him, he began to panic. What if the Vampyrum got them? How would he survive without them? Osiris was Owens best friend, Sirri was another one of his friends, and Bate saved his life. The fear that has been ticking away when he seen he was alone kicked in solid, like a nail being driven in his gut. Owen gave up, he wrapped himself up tight in his luminous wings and prayed to Nocturna to make sure that if whoever- or whatever- took his friends kills him swiftly, instead of dying slowly and painfully.

A tear trickled out of his left eye and turned to steam when it was exposed on his fevered face. Owens heart nearly stopped when he heard a voice beside him

"Are you okay?"

The voice was soft and clear, Owen opened his wings, expecting Sirri.

It was not him.

It was a white- furred bat hanging upside down beside him. It was a female bat, about the same age as him, no doubt albino. Owen had never seen an albino before, but he had heard of them. White creatures with red eyes, but what he had always been trying to find out what red was, one of his elders back at home used to speak of strange sounding things called colors, even though it would be strange, seeing 'colors' would also be beautiful.

"My name is Lithiarch" the albino female said.

Owen couldn't even speak, he found this female albino so beautiful he lost his voice.

"Whats your name?

"Owen" Owen mumbled, finding his voice at last.

"Hello Owen" Lithiarch chuckled.

"Hi" Owen mumbled.

"The Steelwings ran off, a Vampyrum Spectrum named Malice came here and I woke up the Steelwing Bate and he slashed the Vampyrum, then all of the Steelwings flew off." Lithiarch rustled her wings, and when he casted out sound the silvery picture painted itself and Owen seen she, like him, had a weird band fastened tightly on her arm, only hers was black. "I am a Steelwing too. I have many special powers, one of my favorite being able to speak any kind of language and all other things like that, and I can make things go to sleep also. Look behind you."

Owen turned around and gasped.

_Hanging from the ceiling of the tree was a Vampyrum Spectrum!_

Owen slowly turned back to Lithiarch, his eyes wide. He opened his mouth to scream.

Lithiarch clamped her wing over Owens mouth with extreme agility.

"Don't scream, I know its tempting, but don't you might make it wake up and draw more attention."

Owen nodded with much difficulty- Lithiarch was _very _strong_. _

"The Steelwings will be back soon, but I must leave now, to attempt to destroy the tunnel"

Owen had completely forgot about the tunnel, he must have been so worried he forgot about the complete danger the world was in.

Just then Lithiarch vanished, literally vanished. All was left of her was a ghostly after- image. Then that exploded into thousands of echo shards.

Just then, Owen heard voices, first one, then three different ones. Strange, muffled, familiar.

Just then, a weird looking bat flew in. Bate, then followed by Sirri and then an exhausted but ready for action Osiris.

"Sorry we didn't bring any souvenirs" Bate quipped

"Hi" Owen said to the Steelwings.

Sirri started to hang upside down off the ceiling when their was a rustling, then a roar, savage, enraged. Then Bate was immediately in a battle stance, and Sirri and Owen were glaring at something behind him.

"Wha...?" Owen got no further, he already knew what happened. He felt a cold, unsettling weight press down on him.

And teeth sink into his throat.

Owen didn't even use up precious seconds to scream. He hit the Vampyrum with a powerful burst of energy that came from somewhere deep inside him. He stiffened, waiting for the numbing, bone- shattering impact of teeth.

It didn't happen.

The Vampyrum- Malice as Lithiarch called him- flew back at the wall. Owen glanced back at the others, they were astounded at the power he just unleashed. Bate didn't waste a second. He lashed out with his wing and spiked the Vampyrum across the face. Malice fell off of the ceiling and Bate lashed out with one of his wickedly elongated claws and sliced a long gash across the Vampyrum's face.

The Vampyrum knocked off Bate and crawled towards the hole in the tree. With a hateful roar it flew off.

For awhile none said nothing, catching their breath. Then Bate broke the silence by remarking comment.

"Yeah! Did you see that baby fly, we kicked that things ass royally!"

Then everyone laughed, then it seemed fine again, moments of danger and deaths forgotten temporarily.


End file.
